ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The suburbs of Valencia, Spain are still struggling to recover from flash floods that killed hundreds of people at the end of last October. The tragedy sent shockwaves across the country to travelers and hopefuls alike.

Nazareth University students are now fundraising for its recovery efforts.

“I actually studied abroad there my sophomore year," Nazareth junior Sarah Danesh said. "[It's the] most beautiful city [with] the kindest people. I lived with the host mom there."

“I started watching videos and I got teary," Martina Silvestre-Sales recalled. "Like, I teared up a little bit because that's home for me. And I will always be home for me, even though I live in Rochester. Especially on social media, you can see [a] street before and after they've been cleaned. Then again, not every street is clean and there's still people that can't get to their homes because there's cars blocking it. There’s dirt on the streets. It’s not safe.”

Silvestre-Sales and her family moved to Rochester from Valencia about 10 years ago. She says her family overseas is safe and were even able to go help their neighbors. They were joined by thousands of other volunteers who traveled to the city to help recovery efforts.

“Honestly, I was very shocked about the amount of help they were getting," she said. "So many of my friends in Valencia packed up their things and went to help my uncle that lives in Madrid. He packed up his things and went to help with Valencia."

But as these tragedies leave international headlines, donations and volunteers have gone with them.

“I know that the community in Valencia is still recuperating, and even though it’s off of the news, it doesn’t mean that they’re still not struggling, and they don’t need our support," Nazareth junior Olivia Martinez said. "So I think it’s a good thing to give back."

“Now people start realizing how hard everything was," said Gerard Canals, the chief of operations at Open Arms. "But now, they feel abandoned because there are not so [many] people going every day. Before, there was a lot of volunteers going the first two weeks, but not anymore. At the beginning, everybody is willing to help. And I don't say that they are not willing anymore. But people have a life and they have work. And obviously, at some point they have to stop being there and come back to normal life.”

Open Arms is a Spanish not-for-profit organization based in Barcelona, Spain. It often sends crews to help recovery efforts in Spain, as well as neighboring countries, after disaster strikes. It, too, is feeling the financial downfall of donation deficits.

“You think about it as like, oh, some random place in the world,” Silvestre-Sales said. "But when it does happen to your own home, it hurts a little bit. So I definitely knew I wanted to do some fundraiser and the girls in the club also wanted to do it. So we were happy to help.”  

She and the rest of Nazareth University’s Spanish club hosted a fundraiser to donate money towards Open Arms’ recovery efforts for Valencia.  

They are selling posters about Valencia as well as stickers.

"The money pretty much goes to the organization for them to buy supplies, mostly like batteries or just helping people with furniture that has been destroyed," she said.  

“Any way they need it," Danesh said. "Whatever they have to do. I know so many buildings were affected. If they need to rebuild infrastructure, they can do that. They need help to rebuild the economy. They can do that. I’m happy to help in any way I can."

Canals says most of the money they receive goes towards their operations. Open Arms has multiple ships it sends out with help and supplies to areas in need.

“We want to help raise money for Valencia who was impacted by storm Dana," Martinez said. "So, just try to support the community the best that we can. We just want to give back as best that we can.”

“It feels personal," Danesh said. "It feels close. I think of the friends I made there. I think of the family I stayed with. It's kind of become like my family and really just anything I can do to help them. I want to do it because it's a beautiful place and I care about all the people there. I would love to go back, so any way we can help rebuild it.”

“It’s incredible what’s happened there and the amount of money and time that will need to put everything back,” Canals admitted. “I mean, knowing that we have support even from one donor with $4 million a year is great, but [it's] even better that we have four million people giving $1 because it means that there is a lot of people that believe in what we do.”